The Tampa Bay, FL marine forecast covers live wind speed and gusts, tide predictions, wave conditions, and major and minor solunar feeding times, updated continuously from NOAA and Open-Meteo. The strongest fishing windows usually line up with the moving tide and the solunar periods shown below — check current conditions before you head out.
By Steve Wilson, lifelong angler & founder of My Marine Forecast
Last updated: Aug 25, 2026, 8:00 AM
On Tuesday, August 25, Tampa Bay, FL sees high tide at 3:07 AM (1.8 ft) and 12:39 PM (2.6 ft), low tide at 6:28 AM (1.6 ft) and 8:25 PM (0.3 ft). Winds 1–9 mph from the S gusting to 10 mph. Air temperatures 79–87°F. Current water temperature is about 88°F. The strongest fishing windows line up with the moving water around each tide change, roughly an hour on either side.
Today's Tides · Station 8726520
| High tide | 3:07 AM | 1.8 ft |
| Low tide | 6:28 AM | 1.6 ft |
| High tide | 12:39 PM | 2.6 ft |
| Low tide | 8:25 PM | 0.3 ft |
Wind
1–9 mph S
Gusts
10 mph
Air Temp
79–87°F
Water Temp
88°F
Tides from NOAA Station 8726520 · wind & temperature from Open-Meteo. Open the live forecast for hourly charts and the 7-day outlook.
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Tide data sourced from NOAA Station 8726520
Tampa Bay is the largest open water estuary in Florida, roughly 400 square miles running from the Gulf passes up into Old Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Bay. It fishes less like a single spot and more like four connected systems, each with its own timing, water clarity and response to wind. A forecast that works for the lower bay near Egmont often does not describe conditions twenty miles up in the shallow and more protected upper bay.
The lower bay near the Skyway and the passes carries the cleanest water and the most Gulf influence, and it is where tarpon stage during the spring and early summer migration. The middle bay holds the deep grass and channel edges that concentrate trout, mackerel, grouper, snapper and snook. The upper reaches have shallower flats with less grass but hold plenty of great snook and redfish fishing if you know how to read the tides.
Because so much of the bay is under 10 feet deep, wind matters more here than tide range. A sustained fifteen knot Southwest breeze across the long fetch of Old Tampa Bay will muddy the flats and shut down sight fishing even on a perfect tide. Checking wind direction and duration alongside the tide chart is the difference between finding clean water and spending a day looking for it.
Spring: Tarpon begin staging near the passes and along the beaches from late April, building through May, while snook push out of the rivers and back onto the flats as the water warms past the seventies. Trout fishing is steady on the deeper grass. Spring also brings the year's most reliable run of clean water into the lower bay before summer rain starts.
Summer: Tarpon fishing peaks from May into July around Egmont, the Skyway and the beaches outside the passes. Snook move to the beaches and the passes to spawn. Afternoon thunderstorms build almost daily, which makes morning the working window, and the upper bay warms enough that fish slide to deeper edges and moving water by midday.
Fall: Redfish school up and the mullet run pulls everything shallow, making this the most visual fishing of the year on the flats. Snook feed hard before cooling water sends them back toward the rivers. The first fronts of the season drop humidity and clear the water, and the stretch between fronts in October and November is as good as the bay gets.
Winter: Cold fronts drive the pattern. Snook stack in the rivers, creeks and residential canals looking for stable temperature, and trout drop into deeper holes and channel edges. Sheepshead move onto the bridges, docks and the Skyway pilings in numbers. Sunny afternoons after a front push fish onto dark shallow bottom that warms fastest.
The Sunshine Skyway and its fishing piers span the lower bay and hold fish year round. Egmont Key and the passes carry the cleanest Gulf water and the spring tarpon traffic. Fort De Soto covers flats, cuts and beach on the southwest corner. Weedon Island and the Old Tampa Bay bridges anchor the middle and upper bay, and the shipping channel edges give deep water access from nearly anywhere in the system.